General info for LaGG-3-34

• Country USSR
• Vehicle role Fighter
• Rank 2

• Battle rating in
  • arcade battles 3
  • realistic battles 2.3
  • simulator battles 2.3

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Wiki info about LaGG-3-34

Official War Thunder wiki

In as early as 1940, M.I. Gudkov had the idea of installing large-caliber cannons on the LaGG-3 in order to combat enemy armored vehicles. In the spring of 1941, Y.G. Taubin and B.G. Shpitalny began to develop a model of the fighter equipped with 37 mm cannons. But development was put toward an anti-tank model of the LaGG-3 (the series 34) with the Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 engine-mounted 37 mm cannon. The NS-37 cannon was installed in the cavity between the engine cylinders instead of the 20 mm ShVAK cannon. The NS-37 cannon's barrel extended significantly beyond the propeller spinner, and was installed in place of the propeller's lengthened hollow shaft with a ratchet. This meant that the plane's armament consisted of a 37 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 cannon with 12 shells and a 12.7 mm synchronized Berezina UBS machine gun with 200 rounds, installed in the nose section of the fuselage above the engine and to the left. Wing-mounted bomb racks were not installed. Automatic slats were installed on the wing panels to improve the plane's runway characteristics and maneuverability at low flight speeds. The anti-tank LaGG-3 with its NS-37 cannon successfully passed state testing, but it took until 30 December 1942 for the military to adopt the cannon itself. Nonetheless, aircraft plant No. 31 in Tbilisi produced the LaGG-3 Series 34 in the autumn of 1942. According to various estimates, between 40 and 65 LaGG-3 Series 34 planes were built. Planes of this model saw successful use in combat at Stalingrad. Firing from the 37 mm cannon did not shake the plane, and accordingly, did not affect firing accuracy, which was particularly important in battles against armored vehicles. But the 37 mm NS-37 cannon significantly increased the plane's weight and affected its center of gravity, which seriously reduced its flight characteristics. In addition, the plane's structure poorly withstood the cannon's strong recoil. Further production of this model was stopped in connection with the unacceptable drop in its flight characteristics.